U-S-A Chants At Premier League Matches Are Insulting

During Saturday’s Manchester United against Chelsea match at Old Trafford, you may have heard the sarcastic chants from Chelsea supporters of “USA, USA, USA.” The chants were directed at the Manchester United supporters. They were part tongue-in-cheek humor as well as a little bit of banter to wind up the Man United supporters and mock their American owners.

But in my opinion, the chants are in poor taste, disrespectful to Americans and insulting.

It’s not just a faction of Chelsea supporters who are directing the sarcastic chants at Manchester United supporters. Arsenal and Manchester City supporters have reportedly joined in the chanting. And it’s not just Man United supporters who are the butt of the joke. Liverpool fans have been the target of similar chants too.

In the case of Chelsea supporters who were singing the chants at Old Trafford, the chants are disrespectful to the thousands of Chelsea fans who live in America. Many of these fans spend their hard earned money supporting the Blues, buying tickets to see them on their summer tours across the United States and being just as infatuated with the club as supporters are that live in England. If you’re a Chelsea fan who is an American, what does it feel like when your brethren are making fun of your country and the U-S-A cheer?

The hypocrisy of Chelsea supporters chanting “USA, USA, USA” to Manchester United supporters is that Chelsea is just as much in bed with the USA as Manchester United is. The chairman of Chelsea FC is Bruce Buck, who is an American. Chelsea has invested heavily in youth academies in the States. The club has its ownwebsites it has established to market to America, as well as a network of supporters groups across the States. And the club has been touring the USA every other summer for the past few years.

Manchester City has the least amount of connections to the United States among the three clubs. However, Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook had lived in the United States since 1985 and worked with Nike in developing Brand Jordan. And since Cook joined City in 2008, he has made the club more American with its pre-match entertainment and the way the club has marketed itself both on its website and in social media.

The Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal supporters who chant “USA, USA, USA” at Manchester United fans are not representative of all Chelsea, City and Gunners fans. But the trend is upsetting especially when you consider how the supporters are using the name of the United States of America in a derogatory manner. Yes, the Glazers, Hicks and Gillett are dragging the name of the United States in the mud, but that doesn’t mean that all Americans are cut from the same cloth. Let’s hope the insulting chants end soon for the good of the game and the respect that American supporters deserve.

About Christopher Harris

Founder and publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris is the managing editor of the site. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who has lived in Florida since 1984, has supported Swansea City since 1979. He's also an expert on soccer in South Florida, and got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.
Harris launched EPL Talk in 2005, which was rebranded as World Soccer Talk in 2013.
View all posts by Christopher Harris →

My point exactly. Everton was showing genuine support for Landon Donovan. But not all USA USA chants are insulting. Even with the other teams and the examples you mentioned in your article I don’t evne consider to be insulting.

Its banter its taking the mickey out out over clubs. Its like Everton fans shouting 2-0 and we spent f*@#k all.

My dad supports Liverpool and I give him friendly abuse over his choice of team. Scousers hate the Mancs and vice versa its always gonna happen.
I remember when I lived in Northampton and I watched Tranmere play away (I was with the away fans) We was getting called scousers by the fans and we was shouting back we are not scousers.

I am an American Chelsea supporter who has attended every American tour. I am not offended…you’re making something out of nothing. I think it’s actually pretty funny, and I am happy to lend out the USA chant if it’s being used to antagonize Liverpool or ManU supporters.

Remember this is football and like any sport fans will find anything they can to wind each other up. But USA USA come on don’t you think your being just a little hyper sensitive over this?

I suppose that you will advocate no singing at the world cup for any of the teams just in case there is some international incident and world war three starts?

And what about when Team USA play England during said world cup. when the American Fans start chanting USA USA ( I take it as an Englishman I am still allowed to type USA????) should us England fans be upset and insulted?

I really think this is a nonsense story and you have got up on the wrong side of the bed.

“derogatory meaning” – Gaffer, it’s called football banter, its taking the mickey out the fact the Mancs and Liverpool’s owners are American and the neither sets of fans are happy with them as owners. How on earth is that derogatory towards Americans in general?

how is it insulting? or any more insulting than any other chant? EVERY team is in bed with the USA through banking or other business relationship. the point of the chant is to taunt the fans because they don’t like their specific American owners. I’m sure Villa opponents don’t do the same thing.

Is there an element of xenophobia in English football? you bet your ass there is. But Chelsea fans yelling USA USA is so far down the list it’s laughable. Let’s start with the racism, the outrage over foreign players diving (as opposed to Rooney or Gerrard), the overcriticism of foreign managers, and on and on. A USA USA chant – the same chant that graces most of our Yanks Abroad when they score or come on as subs – rises only to the level of cheekiness.

When Pompey went to Tottenham last year there were racist chants yelled towards Sol Campbell (and that was only highlighted because it was so out of control). How about the paedophile chants by Manchester United fans at Arsene Wenger last August. And those are only the ones that made a dent in the news.

my thought exactly…our of all the things insulting in the EPL….chanting USA…*SIGHS*
i’m sure minorities like Adebayor/Sol Campbell/Drogba/Malouda can tell you a whole heap of stories that’s really insulting.

I’m a United fan born and raised in America and I had a laugh at the chant! Fans sing sing songs to get under the skin of the opponent all the time. My blood didn’t boil as I just giggled.

Anyone that got worked up about a USA, USA, USA chant needs to grow some thicker skin since it was just good hearted needling between two fan bases. I rather hear USA, USA, USA chants compared to songs about Munich which involve real tragedy.

I’m an American who watches a lot of EPL and I have to say that there isn’t anything at all about those chants that I find either in poor taste or disrespectful. (In fact, I think they’re pretty hilarious). If people who buy tickets for English games want to express themselves by re-purposing our annoyingly haughty chest thumping cheer as an insult that reflects our own second class status as a soccer playing nation and directs it onto the owners they feel displeasure with, then more power to them.

As an American Liverpool supporter, I am not offended in the least by the “U-S-A” chants. As has been previously commented, this is a relatively harmless chant compared to some of the bile generally shared between supporters.

American leadership over the past decade has done its part in getting the rest of the world pretty fed up with the USA, and I can’t say I blame them.

Jesus wept if that offends you please don’t come and watch Stoke if you’re over here! As for racisim in Premier League do me a favour and go to watch football in Spain and Italy, never mind eastern Europe.

A couple of good ones from yesterday, both aimed at the facially challenged Jimmy Bullard were:

Tom, it’s been a few years since I’ve had a chance to see a Premier League match in England, yes, but I’ve heard my fair share of chants in the past, many of them a lot more abusive than this one.

I was insulted by the chant because I’m an American citizen (as well as a British citizen). While some people thought the chant was funny, I thought it was in poor taste and had a strong tinge of anti-Americanism about it.

as an American Blue I really see no offense in this chant. If I was at Old Trafford today, I probably would have sung along with those guys.

you wrote clearly it was tongue in cheek, so where is the real problem there?
This is Chelsea we are talking about!! Celery and Carefree!!. It’s just a bit of a laugh.
You should stick to writing about Liverpool and not write blog posts through the eyes of a Chelsea Supporter.

there is no hypocracy.
the owners of united are in it for the money and have no genuine interest in football.
hence the protests from their own fans.
And as previous posts have said, you’d be hard pressed to find a football club chant that isnt insulting to SOMEone SOMEwhere.

When I was at the pub yesterday the singing in the pub was so loud that I couldn’t even hear the U-S-A chants on the TV. I didn’t even know about the USA chant until I saw this article. As an American Chelsea supporter I’m not offended, it’s part of the game. Top of the league havin a laugh! KTBFFH!

We are talking about football chanting aren’t we? Is it not supposed to be a bit of cheeky banter. The tone is clearly meant to replicate the generic, archetypal college frat boy, some may argue, slightly chauvinistic (country-wise) chant of “USA, USA” that is associated with American Fans at international sporting events. Doesn’t Sam’s Army sing the same when “Team USA” plays? If you are going to use the hypocrisy angle, then virtually every chant will fall suspect.

I am more concerned about the potential anti-Semitism that may be tagged with many of the new owners, including Chelsea’s

Considering that Beckham when he at Manchester, had to endure 50,000+ people asking him week in week out if his wife was capable of a certain sex act, this is nothing.

Fair enough Gaffer, you have a right to feel insulted by what’s on your cereal box if that’s the case but I, like most of the other posters see it as wind up in true tradition of British Sarcasm and irony. Is it slightly condecending and probably getting a bit tired, perhaps. Considering most American owners haven’t endeared themselves to their respective clubs, it’s clearly directed in their direction. But insulting and derogatory? I will put monkey chants and throwing bananas at players because of their skin colour, sectarian baiting, and making light of Munich and Hillsborough etc in that catagory first.

I can tell you that as a Chelsea supporter from the USA (and a member of the supporters club Chelsea in America, which you linked to in the article), I’m not offended by this at all – I actually find it pretty funny.

I know your aim was good, and I can see the point – I just think as a true football supporter you have to take a step back and realize we’re all just having a laugh. I know quite a few people who are Londoners and season ticket holders at the bridge who were at old trafford on Saturday, I can almost guarantee none of them were trying to insult Chelsea supporters in the United States with that. Everyone knew what it meant, even you as you pointed out in the beginning of the article.

Haha, looks like the Gaffer’s going to have to skulk off with his tail firmly between his legs on this one! Not one single voice in agreement with you on this mate! Go on, admit it, you were just trying to stir some trans-Atlantic trouble up again like you’ve attempted to do in the past with some of your other similarly Yank-Brit baiting blogs. And well, considering you’ve also managed to get your American fans to turn on you now too, this one’s just for you Gaff: “USA!! USA!! USA!! USA!!”

Macho, I’m not trying to stir problems. Just stating an opinion I had. I don’t write to have everyone agree with me. And vice-versa, I don’t write to have everyone disagree with me. I write to share my thoughts and opinions.

Yet you are still wrong because those two other clubs aren’t owned by Americans, like Manchester United. They really have all the right in the world to mock their American owners… considering they are English playing in England.

The chant is funny and there is nothing malicious about it compared to what I’ve heard of other chants. It’s harmless bantering in my view. Gaffer, you do a great job and I’m a fan of the website b/c of your insight but you’ll live a longer, more peaceful life if you don’t let minor things like this bother you. Cheers.

This is pathetic – I’ve plenty of Brit friends who were chanting it yesterday, and I take no offense.

Kristian, above me, is a facking nonce and England sucks balls Do you think he is offended? No, because we get on well and he knows I’m joking.

Chanting USA was a clever way to poke fun at all the green and gold hypocrites who didn’t whine and moan about the club pissing away millions for years until now, when Ronaldo was sold and no replacement was found. Props to my mates for finding a clever way to rile them up, which they did by thoroughly outsinging those scumbags all afternoon long.

LOL!! Think you’ve got your facts wrong, mate. Plastic Scousers, yes. Plastic Mancs, yep. Unfortunately a lot of their traditional ‘support’ comes from the home counties in England. There were an awful lot of disappointed ManU ‘fans’ on the trains heading back to Surrey on Saturday night!

Despite protestations to the contrary, the true cities of Manchester and Liverpool are predominantly Blue in both cases….

If that upsets you gaffer then the UK had better stand by for nuclear armageddon from the South Koreans over the Ji-Sung Park song…

At the risk of getting banned:

To the tune of ’10 green bottles’…

10 Alsations standing on the street,
10 Alsations standing on the street,
but if Ji-Sung Park should fancy one to eat,
There’d be 9 Alsations standing on the street…

Now thats something to get upset about…if you can’t see the ‘banter’ side of it.

For 30 years I put up with being a ‘yiddo’ and having songs sung about my allegiance to Spurs (I’m white british & protestant by the way as are most spurs fans) until we turned that nickname around and started calling ourselves the ‘Yid Army’. Overnight that insult was rendered meaningless as the spurs fans were now proudly referring to themselves as Yiddo’s.

Now we wear t-shirts (& some have tattoo’s) with it on.

Its all part of the match-day inter rivalry fun – please don’t take it anything more than that.

By the way – I’ve yet to see 1 post supporting your stance Gaffer – is this a record mate?

Has this bloke ever been to a football match? The USA USA chants were not intended as an insult to America. It was intended to wind up man u fans who have been protesting against the Glaziers. If the ‘Gaffer’ (whoever he is) knew anything of the banter that goes on between football supporters he would know that. Chelsea have a big interest in the United States and regularly have pre-season tours there. Chelsea also invest in youth football in the US. There is a growing fan base for Chelsea in the US and they have their own Chelsea website and forum. That is well known and appreciated here in the UK by Chelsea followers. Whenever US based Chelsea supporters make the trip over here they are well received. So I can confirm, no offence intended to you people in America. These chants are aimed at the mancs.

That isn’t offensive at all, as an American I just find it dumb and lacking immagination. If the U-S-A chant was the best they could come up with may god have mercy on their souls. They would of been better off saving their breath crying for calls they dont deserve.

Man U fans should have had enough witts about them to start chanting “COM-U-NIST!”

I see where you are coming from. If Fulham’s opponent supporters started chanting Egypt Egypt Egypt, I see no harm in this (nation). However, if they started with Arabs, Arabs, Arabs, I see the problem of racism/xenophobia (race/ethnicity). If the Chelsea supporters had chanted Jews, Jews, Jews (Glazers are jews but so is Abramovich, right?), I would predict mayhem and calls of racism.

Chanting against nations is OK in my book but I see where you are coming from, and race and ethnicity is off limits in my book. But I see the difference too.

Let’s just resort to being USA sports fans (baseball, basketball) who respond very politely to the organ music crescendo “CHARGE”, or better still the ultra-imaginative “let’s go [fill in your team's name here]” that is sung by every team’s fans here in the USA. Part of the excitement and atmosphere at football (soccer) games is the spontaneous chants and banter at matches between fans.
BTW, sorry if I just insulted ‘USA sports fans’.

American fans do this all the time. Not in song form but in chant form. I remember in 1989 when A.C. Green was picked ahead of Karl Malone for the NBA All-star game (a laughable prospect that could only be the result of more Laker fans stuffing the ballot) the chants in arenas for teams playing the Jazz was “A-C-GREEN! A-C-GREEN!”

Patriot fans chanted “Yankees Suck” after they won in Super Bowl 36 … against the St Louis Rams!

Eagles fans routinely cheer injuries suffered by opposing fans.

and you don’t want to see some of the stuff in the student sections in college sports

American fans can be just as ruthless, but I think are just not as committed – and in some cases not as creative.

I am amazed that somebody who claims to know anything about the game would even propose this position. Of course you are entitled to your opinions, and I understand you are in the business of starting discussion and debate, but surely you could have picked a more balanced topic? You have the right to the opinion that Elvis will show up with Bin Laden on Larry King tonight, but does it make it realistic and discussion-worthy?

This is a position I would have expected, and somewhat respected, from somebody who does not know the game, or the British culture, but as you claim to know both it blows me away you could be so thin skinned and naive as to think this was in any way intended as anything more than a wind-up, let alone be offended by it.

If we let this sort of thing offend us, and can’t all laugh a little and even join in, then that is a sad day indeed, and absolutely a day you need to re-evaluate your participation in the grown-up subject of soccer/football support.

Next time just recite to yourself “Celery may leave a mark, but words will never hurt me” … unless that is insulting to green grocers

and to add to the yid theme from post 56 I’m a life-long Burnley fan. Our local rivals and now others refer to us as Dingles, after a family in a TV series, where they are the UK equivalent of (ahem) banjo-players, the insinuations being in-bred

Like Spurs we’ve also appreciated the humor of this and similarly self-efface by refering to ourselves as Dingles, and indeed I am typing this with my 12 fingers

All of you who are defending the chant as “just taking the mickey” or “just a wind-up about the owners” are overlooking something pretty basic here: The chant is “U-S-A,” not “G-L-A-Z-E-R.” In other words, the operative target of attack is not the owners themselves, but the owners’ NATIONALITY.

The implication is that the Glazers suck, or can’t run a football club, or simply are worth making fun of, because they’re American. American-ness is being deemed a liability that naturally warrants teasing and mocking.

So there is absolutely no question that the chant is a secondhand jab at the U.S. (specifically the perceived ineptitude of the U.S. in football). Whether it’s worth getting upset about is a different question, but regardless, it’s completely unrealistic to claim it’s not disrespectful of Americans.

Sucka, don’t forget about Sunderland, which is also owned by an American. For everything that the Glazers and Hicks/Gillett have done poorly at United and Liverpool, Lerner and Short have been role models as owners at Villa and Sunderland.

You know I don’t give a damn if British fans yell USA at United, but sucka, i don’t see how you respond to an accusation that the chant is directed at Americans as Americans by pointing out that 2/3 of EPL clubs owned by Americans are over-leveraged, other than to try and make a connection between debt and Americanness. I guess if it floats it must be a witch. In a discussion about bigotry and disrespect, I think that counts as an own goal, my friend.

the chant ISN’T directed at Americans, that’s the point. It’s a creative wind-up using a figurative link between what most soccer fans consider irresponsible ownership and their country of origin. It’s the same as people referring to Chelsea as Chelski. If you want to call that “bigotry” be my guest – and I’ll return your witch line (whatever it means).

right – so I could see if it was only 1 out of 10, but 50% is a pretty big number especially for a country whose fans feel as if owners should merely be custodians of their clubs, and not gordon gekko-type opportunists.

It kind of is though. It attempts to insult the United fans by linking there current woes with the fact that the teamn is owned by Americans. But hilariously, my point wasnt about the chant per se, but about YOU, and the fact that you seemed to think that United’s “problems” (and i say that ironically because I don’t think they have any serious ones) are linked to its being owned by Americans. Then you say that England is a country whose fans don’t like gordon gekko type opportunists, and that America, by implication is. Don’t try to escape the meaning of your words.

I frankly don’t care. We’ve been over it since the Battle of Yorktown, but you can’t say you’re not being disrespectful when you are making derogatory statements about theyre nationality. Own it. Just like we will own you come June 12.

“It kind of is though. It attempts to insult the United fans by linking there current woes with the fact that the teamn is owned by Americans.” … that have added a lot of debt to the club which they see as a threat to the club – regardless of whether it is or not. The chant is making fun of the United fans, not Americans. Because without the fear of those Americans ruining their club, the chants wouldn’t mean much. I don’t think we’ll be hearing the same USA USA chants at the Chelsea-Villa FA Cup match.

“But hilariously, my point wasnt about the chant per se, but about YOU, and the fact that you seemed to think that United’s “problems” (and i say that ironically because I don’t think they have any serious ones) are linked to its being owned by Americans.”

That’s hilarious because I never said that.

“Then you say that England is a country whose fans don’t like gordon gekko type opportunists, and that America, by implication is.”

Americans could give a sh!t about the structure of their owners – especially the teams that are new to their communities (which seems to be about 50% these days). Also the league structure in America sorta ensures that teams can’t/won’t go bust or otherwise engage in risky financial behavior as the leagues see team failures as threats to the league. The only teams I know that have gone out of business are the LA Sol (womens soccer) and the Houston Comets (WNBA). Can you honestly see a green-and-gold effort for any American sports teams? The Cleveland Browns protest was the closest it’s come. And look at the abject failure that Baltimore Orioles (a team with a rich baseball history) have put up with for at least a decade. If that team were in England, Peter Angelos’ front door would be full or flaming bags of Poo every night.

“Don’t try to escape the meaning of your words.”

so yeah – I still don’t see it. Maybe I’d go along with you for the United / Green-and-Gold clan who hang the “Yanks Out” signs at OT and Anfield (even though I know which “Yanks” they’re referring to) but the Chelsea fans making fun of them being bigoted – more than a stretch. And the fact that you’re arguing semantics with me and making somewhat nationalistic references to the game on June 12th (are you English/supporting England? cuz I’m not) are making me think that you’d rather dissect my words rather than defend your own. So have fun with the witch comments and the word parsing.

I agree with everyone else that getting offended at this is definitely being over-sensitive but wanted to bring up the lack of creativity that American fans are being accused of, as one poster quite rightly said most cheers in most arenas are Let’s Go (insert team name here). I think this is a result of America being over-sensitive like the author of this post and doing everything it can to take crowd chanting away from fans and not a lack of creativity from fans. Any sport you attend in America these days, the arena sound system plays very loud music during any stoppage in play which makes it difficult to get a chant going and sustain it. I attended an NHL playoff game last year in Boston and it was difficult to heckle opposing players because the arena sound system was constantly drowning out anything anyone can say. It warms my heart however that even in this environment that “Crosby sucks” has taken over most NHL arenas whenever the NHL’s golden boy comes to town. So blame American corporations and over-sensitive complainers, not regular American fans because our chants lag behind England’s.

Breaking news: the scum of the EPL are acting like the scumbags they are! most football chants are offensive, that’s the beauty of it. too bad americans can’t make the sporting events here as fun as they do in england.

Let me just put this into perspective. As an American we’ve got Stan Kroenke, Randy Lerner, George Gillet/Tom Hicks, Malcolm Glazer, Bruce Buck, and Ellis Short pulling strings for arguably the leagues best teams. 70% of the Premier League is foreign owners. There is what 1 English owned team that has the possibility of playing in Europe next season (Tottenham)? Manchester United supports and other English fans obviously have a reason to be pissed. I don’t take the USA chant as offensive. What all these damn American owners should be doing is trying to support a league in their OWN country.

Can you imagine how pissed Americans would be if our beloved Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, Mets, Cubs, etc. were owned by English millionaire/billionaires. Please, USA chants are nothing. I’m surprised they haven’t been throwing flaming George W dolls on the pitch.

I think it is appropriate to recount an experience I had a Soldier Field several years ago during a US v England friendly. I stood with a bunch of English supporters and we were having a good old time singing songs about the US, and there was a group of US lads down in front of us clearly getting frustrated.

Finally, after a rousing rendition of “George Bush, is a w@nker, is a w@nker..?” they replied with “Tony Blair is our bitch, is our bitch…” to which we gave a hearty and sincere round of applause. They loved it as they had “got it” and from there on we had a great time exchanging banter and songs with them, and they had a blast.

I tell this story regularly when this conversation comes up because THIS is what it’s all about. Nobody picked apart our politics, or whether referring to Dubya was disrespectful, we were just having some good old fashioned banter, and everybody went down the pub with a smile on their faces and a story to tell. All I can hope is that those American lads took that experience and tried to educate their fellow sports fans at domestic sporting events, but as has been pointed out above, I sadly don’t think that happened for the reasons also cited.

He who comes up with the most creative song wins. He who is over sensitive and gets their feelings hurt, loses. End of.

that was the best response/arguement on this thread. The whole fun of being in a crowd at a game is the whitty banter and songs. You almost enjoy when a team comes back with a better song in response to yours; it just gives you more reason to get more creative and insulting. It’s all in good humor and if you can’t see that then sadly you do not seem like a fun person to be around. I’ve lived in England for 8 years since moving from America and even people who give me heckle at the pub for being American I take in good jest. Chill out a bit Gaffer.

Football chants are all part of the experience. They are generally witty, cheeky and for fun. They provoke a response and like Expats example above, can muster banter.

Tonight England play the USA in the World Cup.
U-S-A U-S-A will be volleyed back by the English fans, with: U-R-Sh1t, U-R-Sh1t

BP will certainly get a mention somehow, as will something to do with friendly fire and the US national dish – Burrito’s – it is all for a laugh: Just like the song the English embraced about their national dish and football team: Vindaloo.